


Love Between Realities

by Shadam_adashi_blessed



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Dark Times, Dreams and Nightmares, F/F, F/M, Lance and his crew are really inspired by GOTG, Langst, M/M, Slow Burn, Soulmates, Space Pirates, a lil depressing, i dunno wtf im doing, i'll add more tags as i go i suppose, kind of, patience yields focusss, space alcohol??, there are a lot of other characters - Freeform, they dont really know about it lmao
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-09
Updated: 2018-09-09
Packaged: 2019-07-10 05:54:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15943139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadam_adashi_blessed/pseuds/Shadam_adashi_blessed
Summary: "You have to move on."Hearing those words come out her mouth made his eyes prick with tears. As harsh as they sounded, Lance knew she only meant well. She only cared enough to sit him down and talk him through it."I'm not saying you have to forget them, or that you have to let go," Pyra continued. "But I am saying you have to accept that this is where you are now. You have to focus on the future. And more importantly, you have to be realistic. Because the reality of it all is that your chances getting back to them are slim to nothing, Lance. And I'm sorry that's the way it is."OrLife can be a bitch. And it was. To Lance Mcclain. The day it decided it would be a great idea to launch him into an alternate reality and leave everything he loved behind. Sure, it gave him something in exchange, and yeah, he was happy as the captain of his crew, with his girlfriend and new family, but honestly? Lance just wanted to go home.Spend your time wishing on all the stars in the universe and miracles just might occur. Although, it may take 9 years.





	Love Between Realities

**Author's Note:**

> Hello Hello!! Thank you for clicking on this shit, highly appreciated :) 
> 
> Although I've written many fics, this is my first time mustering up enough courage to share it with the fandom! Even if the show ends in November hhhhh
> 
> Anyway yeah, I plan for this to be reallyyyy fucking long? In my terms anyway. 
> 
> A giant portion of this story is Lance interacting with my oc's, so i apologize for the lack of the original crew, but that's how it is ;-;
> 
> I hope you enjoy it! Thanks again!

It was anything far from unnatural for Lance to be sipping from a cup, or small bowl, that contained an odd color of liquid. White, black, green, pink, red, blue, whatever the color, it wasn't anything out of the ordinary. What was out of the ordinary was how the drink in his hand would drastically change color every time he brought it to his lips. When the bar tender set it in front of him, it was clear. After he took the first swig, it turned a fluorescent orange. This threw him off, but it didn't make him wan't to drink it any less. Still, from past experiences, he made sure to be cautious, taking smaller sips and staring in awe as it turned yellow, then green, then a light brown. He was baffled! In all his years of traveling through space, he had never come across a drink such as this.

"I take it it's your first time here?" A gravelly voice came in from his right.

He was a small fellow. His feet dangled from where he sat on the bar stool, a bar stool that only came to Lance's thighs, and he hunched over the counter in a way that made him appear even smaller. His voice didn't fit his appearance at all. It almost made Lance laugh.

From the description though, Lance new this was the guy. He kind of reminded him of those Unilu guys that Coran used to talk about. Four arms, two resting against the bar, one with a hand wrapped around his cup, and the other held a sharp item that resembled a toothpick, it was much longer though.

Lance couldn't see his face. He had a dark hood up, covering his profile completely. The symbol on the bottom of the hood confirmed Lance's suspicions. He was the guy he was supposed to make the trade with.

Lance shifted his weight, glancing down at his drink before lifting his head up to scan the area around him. Everyone was still doing their own things. Aliens of different species from all around stood and sat in small groups, talking among themselves or watching the strippers dance in their cages seductively. Most of them wore nothing. The ones who did wear clothes, though leaving little to the imagination, were waiters. A said waiter walked passed him holding a tray of several drinks, and when her three sparkling eyes caught him staring, she winked.

Lance only gave her a casual smile, before turning back to the now teal liquid before him. After clearing his throat, he opened his mouth.

"And I take it, you're Mumphy?" He questioned.

It earned him a low hiss as Mumphy moved his head around in a frantic fashion before ducking it even lower than before. Lance smirked.

"Don't go spilling my title in a place like this." Mumphy barked.

"I'm just making sure. Better safe then sorry."

"Whatever, lets make this quick. Do you have the cards?"

This guy was more straight to the point than Lance thought.

"I do," Lance answered, reaching down to feel the outline of them in the pocket of his pants. "All three like you asked." He said before taking a sip from his cup, watching it turn gold.

"Three!?" Mumphy hissed again from beside him. "The deal was five! Five or nothing at all." He lowered his voice near the end as the bar tender passed them. They both watched him travel to the far end of the bar before speaking again.

"The deal," Lance began. "Was three."

The thing is, Lance knew damn well the deal wasn't three. Mumphy was right. They all agreed five H.P.F cards for a large sum of information containing the whereabouts of the Xulite crystal. However, after a long discussion with his crew, they came to the solution. It wasn't a fair trade. Five H.P.F cards should get them double the information, so they settled with three. They all figured in due time, face to face, they could settle with that agreement.

Mumphy groaned and Lance saw his grip tighten, a little dangerously, around his cup.

"The voice recording box of our former interaction is on me as we speak." He seethed lowly. "If you don't keep true to your words, then there will be no transaction. You can kiss the information goodbye."

"That's where you're wrong," Lance smiled. "Don't act like you're not salivating over these cards in my pocket right now. You and I both know the deal we made was entirely off par. We're not a lot of dumbasses."

Mumphy scoffed.

Lance sighed.

"I'm saying here, now," Lance continued. "The trade is three of these babies for the same amount of information."

"Those cards aren't worth anywhere near this amount-"

"That's exactly what I'm saying!" Lance countered.

Mumphy let out a confused noise as Lance let his words hang in the air for a few seconds. It was just too fun to fuck with people sometimes.

"Or, exactly what I would be saying if I were giving you five cards."

"Oh, for Glyzar's sake!" Mumphy yelled, sinking even more into the counter as Lance felt many eyes drift over to them from his outburst. If he sinks any more then he would meld into the damn thing.

"Watch it," Lance murmurs against the rim of his glass. "We get caught, the only thing we're getting is shot through the head."

Mumphy began muttering under his breath in a language that Lance couldn't understand, but in a way where he could understand it was nothing but a string of curses directed toward him. Still, he could tell that everything was going according to plan. By the end of all this, he would have the information, and Mumphy would have his three H.P.F cards.

His three fake H.P.F cards.

A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do.

After minutes of Mumphy's angry muttering, so long that Lance had time to order another one of his weird drinks, he finally caved in.

"Alright, alright," He said defeatedly. "You got a deal."

"Perfect!" Lance hummed triumphantly, already reaching for the cards in his pocket. "So glad we could come to a mutual understanding, my friend."

"I'm happy to comply." Mumphy said sarcastically.

Lance nearly pulled all the cards out when he thought up something. He held out his wrist under the counter for Mumphy to connect their intel bands.

For the first time this night, Mumphy turned to look at him. Lance couldnt see his eyes, but his lips were drawn up in confusion.

"Information first please." He chirped.

His confusion turned into a sneer.

"C'mon, Mumphy, you can trust me." Mumphy flinched at his name and roughly took Lance's wrist, connecting their bands and pulling up the information on a small blue screen, and began to transfer the data.

Lance smiled, watching as numbers, letters, and symbols raced across the screen as they transferred into his band. He could already taste the Xulite crystal.

"Thank you, Sir." Lance sighed happily, now reaching for the cards. As his fingertips touched the edge of them, a large vibration ran through the club. There was a small uprising of confusion and concern from the aliens around them, the strippers pausing their dances, and the bartender pausing from pouring a drink.

Thinking, a small wave of panic came over Lance.

"Hey," Mumphy said through the mini chaos. "The cards."

Lance turned back to him and nodded.

"Right, my bad." And as he slid the cards out of his pocket, another large vibration came, but this time, it was followed by a loud explosion that shook the entire club. He shoved the cards back in his pocket as a second bar tender ran pass them, trying to see what the problem was.

Lance already had an idea.

As he expected, she came busting through a door in the far back of the club, smoke emitting rapidly from the opening as she coughed and caught sight of him. She raised her eyebrows knowingly and Lance sighed.

"Dammit." He whispered.

She was at his side in seconds, everyone's eyes following her with suspicion before another explosion went off. She grabbed his wrist and pulled him away from the bar, a frantic look in her eyes.

"Let's get moving." She told him.

"What the hell did you do?!"

Lance looked back as he was dragged away, catching sight of Mumphy's angry glare through the darkness, and he cursed to himself.

"I'll have to add him to our list of aliens we're wanted by!" Lance yelled at her. She kept running as if she didn't hear him. It was hard to tell exactly if she really did or not with the screaming of the customers around them and the yelling of guards now chasing after them.

"Do they have guns?!" Lance asked her. His question was answered when a shot whizzed past his head, hitting the frame of the doorway they ran out of instead of him. He groaned, annoyed, and took the lead, both of them running towards their ship. He had almost completed the deal. He was so close! If only she had waited 10 more seconds to blow up some shit.

"I seriously can't believe you!"

"Stop yelling at me!" She cried. "I had no other choice!"

"Pyra!" He jumped over a rock and turned a corner, the ship coming into sight. "Now we have another guy on our ass!"

"We already have a thousand after us, what's a thousand and one?"

Lance couldn't help but laugh, even if they were being chased with laser guns. As they got closer, he began to see an outline of someone leaning against the ship. They were tall and large. Lance squinted.

"Tai?!"

She looked up. It was Tai.

"Start up the ship!"

"What!?"

"The ship!" Lance ducked, dodging another shot. "Star up the ship!"

She heard him this time, running through the ship doors and disappearing.

Lance sighed in relief as the ship came to life, the lights flickering on and the take off gear already coming out. It was already starting to roll off. Meaning, Lance and Pyra had to pick up speed.

  
\----------------------------------------------------  
"So, did you get it?" Lance heard once he managed to plop in his seat at the head of the ship.

He threw his head back and placed a hand on his heaving chest.

It had to have been the strange crap he drank earlier.

"Shit." Lance breathed, wiping some sweat from his brow.

"Lance?" An eager voice asked.

"Let a guy catch his breath, will you?" He groaned.

Everyone stayed quiet as the sound of Lance rapidly inhaling and exhaling filled the room. Lance took his time calming down his heart, while his crew watched him with anticipation.

"Okay," He finally sighed. "Now that that's taken care of,"

Lance rose to his feet and strides over to the display table in the center of everyone. They used the table for initially everything. It stood higher than a normal one, and it was made completely out of metals and other advance high-tech resources. Lance removed his Intel band and placed it in the middle of the table, which came to life in an instant. A large screen of blue light about the size of a flat screen T.V lit up. Everyone's face's lit up with it.

A round of cheers erupted as they viewed the information in front of them. It meant everything. It was the biggest opening they managed to get their hands on in years. If they pulled this off, it would change the way they lived forever. They'd have not only a higher title, but a chance to be different people.

And Lance was the one who constructed it all.

"Nice going, Lance!" Jacey rooted, clapping him hard on the back.

"It was no big deal, as usual." Lance smirked cockily.

"When is it ever a big deal? You're the greatest!"

"Many times," Blivar grunted humorously from the opposite side of the table. "It's been a big deal many times. But, you still always pull through in the end."

"Thank you, for that." Lance smiled sheepishly. His eyes drifted over to Pyra, who was staring a little anxiously at the glowing screen. He felt a pang in his heart. "Buuuuut, none of it would have happened without my right hand man."

Pyra glanced up, knowing that was her, and grinned at the sudden attention on her while rolling her eyes.

"She was the one who kept Jivaro at bay!" He continued, gradually rounding the corner of the table.

"Although not for long." She confessed.

"Not for long, but long enough." He wrapped an arm around her and pulled her in close. "Ignoring that I didn't get to trade these in," Lance revealed the cards and tossed them in front of everyone. A choir of sighs rang through the room and Pyra groaned.

"Alright! I get it! It could have gone a lot smoother if I hadn't screwed up." Pyra said, her voice going into a mutter near the end of her sentence.

"Hey, sweetheart, don't worry about it. Everyone makes mistakes, right?" Lance asked her. She growled at him. He gulped. "Right, guys?" Lance laughed nervously.

They all grumbled and nodded in some form of agreement, but Pyra took no mind to it and threw Lance's arm off of her before stomping away.

"Yeesh," Tai spoke from behind him. "Someone is in a mood." She frowned, nudging him in his head. It would've been his arm if she were smaller, but Tai was twice his size. She nudged him again and he pushed her hand away.

"Yeah, I know! I am fully aware that someone is in a mood." Lance said, eyes trained worriedly on the place she disappeared into. With a large exhale, he started towards the direction she went in. "Blivar? Plex? Can you two run a scan on what we've got? Make sure there isn't anything, wonky or whatever."

Both nodded.

"Sure thing." Blivar said.

"Right away, Sir." Plex bleeped.

Lance thanked them and turned the corner with a huff.

He hadn't meant to make her upset. It was obvious that something about the mission was bothering her, even though they were supposed to be celebrating. Although her moods were rare, they were always serious. He figured being lighthearted about what had happened back there would do the trick. It sure as hell didn't though, so she had to have been feeling really guilty about how it went.

Lance already knew where Pyra was. She went there whenever she was upset.

He turned another corner and hit the button in the wall to open up a section of the floor. It was like a basement of such, which was kind of weird considering how big their ship was. Which wasn't very big. Large enough for six beings to live in.

The door opened with a soft whir and Lance began to descend. Most of the time the light down here was artificial. When the barricade was opened, like it was now, it was a sort of observatory, and the natural light of the stars streamed in.

Pyra was standing off to his left when he reached the bottom. Her hair might've been thick with curls, but through them he could still see that her ears were drooping. Lance slowly approached her.

She spoke before he even reached her.

"Sorry for lashing out at you." Pyra apologized softly.

"No, you shouldn't be apologizing. It's completely my fault," Lance confessed, gently turning her towards him. Her large eyes sparkled with sadness, and there was wetness across the dark blue spots on her cheeks. Lance unfolded her arms and held her hands. "I'm sorry for not seeing how upset the whole thing really made you. I just thought-"

"Lance," She cut him off. "It's not that."

"Is it the trade? "cause I was just joking about that. You're definitely right about the a thousand and one thing, it won't really make a difference at all. Plus, the guy's the size of peanut-"

"What if we mess this up?" The question was just barely a whisper. Lance shook his head in confusion.

"What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean," She turned back to the stars, looking away from Lance in a way that made his stomach drop. "This is a big step. We're talking about a Xulite crystal. Stealing this is us putting everything on the line. And I know, having stuff on the line is normal for us and all that, but this is actually all we have. There are so many things that could go wrong."

"Pyra, you gotta have a little faith-" Lance says seriously.

"There's little to none when I'm just thinking realistically."

Lance knew she was right. Pyra was right about a lot of things. Realism was her specialty. She was the one who was always spewing out possibilities. The one who made sure everyone kept their head on straight. Pyra was the simple reason he was able to get through a day in one piece.

"I understand how you're thinking. But you have to understand this," She turned her head, her black curls bouncing slightly. "When there's an opportunity, we have to take it. And yes, this is big, the is chancy, but that's where we come in. That's what makes us who we are."

He took her face in his hands. She wouldn't let him catch her eyes.

"Look at me, please." Lance begged.

She did.

"We've come so far, you and I. And-and not just us. The whole team. We're a family-"

"And that's why I'm so scared." Pyra cried. "I'm scared because we're a family, and I don't want to lose another one."

"You know more than anyone in the world that I know exactly what that feels like." Lance says. Pyra nodded in agreement.

"Of course I do," She says. "Which makes me even more confused. You know how I feel yet you don't agree?"

Pyra pulls herself out of Lance's hold and crosses the room in seconds.

Lance stands his ground and observes her from afar. She presses against the glass and closes her eyes. The light makes her blue skin look almost, purple. She runs her hands across her face and sniffles lightly. It felt strange to watch her cry. Her moods weren't like this. Her moods were an angry fit, it was what he had expected when he walked down here.

"I have my doubts just as you, but letting them take over isn't gonna help. We're too deep in this to back out now. We can't give up. Whatever happens, happens." Pyra shot him an oddly vicious look. Lance was quick to correct himself while walking over to her. "And by that, I mean whatever happens," Lance grabbed her by the hand and brought it up to his lips, kissing it gingerly. "We'll still be together. It'll take more than whatever this Xulite crystal is to tear us apart."

"And what is it exactly?" Pyra asks, exasperated. "We don't even know. We're going into this blind."

"That's why we collected that information upstairs. It'll tell us where it's located, it's history, the easiest way to access it-"

"But it won't tell us what it is!" Pyra snapped. Her ears were no longer sagging in despair. They were pointed back, pressing against her head.

"Don't you think we know enough?" Lance asks, lowering his voice. "Word travels in our sort of business. That's how we heard about it in the first place. It's a crystal that could power ten planets at once. You know how much something like that is worth. If we take it and harvest it, all while selling a great portion of it? We'll be living in luxury, Pyra. We could pay off our own ransoms, make a better image of ourselves. We won't have to steal anything anymore."

"And you, trust, these words? You trust what other people like us say? It's never been stolen before, Lance. I'm sure there's a reason why."

Lance raked his fingers through his hair tiredly. It was actually starting to irritate him. He fully understood where she was coming from, but with how desperate she was to get her point across, Lance felt like it was him and their team that she wasn't trusting. They were some of the best at what they did. They took time to plan things out, working around obstacles, and with Pyra's help, thinking rationally.

But now? Pyra was suddenly putting herself in a shell. A shell that in all his years of knowing her, he hasn't ever come to face. There was something burning in her eyes. It wasn't rage, and it wasn't fear. That was all there but it was something more to it. There was something he wasn't seeing. Lance had to find out what the root of her emotions was.

"Where is all this coming from? So suddenly? Just yesterday you were-"

"It's just a feeling." She urged. "You know that, right? There's a feeling that'll sometimes appear in your gut. It'll fester and grow, and it isn't exactly something you can place in a category. But it's there. And it...it brings out my reasons to worry."

Lance studied her face as much as she could. She was staring at the ground, blinking rapidly in thought. Her eyes were flicking back and forth, eagerly searching.

She looked frustrated, at everything. Most importantly, herself.

"We'll proceed with caution. We kind of, already have, but we'll be even more careful." Lance says, causing her to lift her head up, her ears perking slightly.

"You know we think before we act, it's our thing. But we'll double it. Hell, we'll triple it! And luck be on our side. I'll tell you what, I'll have Plex run our chances constantly as we progress. She can do that, right?" Lance asks just to asks.

"...She can." Pyra answers thoughtfully.

"That's right. And if they start to get too low, you bet your ass we're cutting it off instantly. Okay?" Pyra slowly started to nod, holding Lance more firmly. Lance could see she still her doubts still remains, but she was putting them aside for the sake of them.

"Okay. Alright. That seems...reasonable."

"That's my girl," Lance beams, kissing her hand again. "We'll be fine."

Pyra smiled in return every so slightly and looked back out the stars. Lance followed her eyes and gave her hand a squeeze. She squeezed back with half the strength.

"I hope you're right." Pyra says. The way she says it, Lance knows it's not just to him. It's to the stars. To the universe. Her of all people is placing hope in the possibilities they have. She's just hoping for the greater good.

  
\----------------------  
9 YEARS EARLIER  
The sound erupting from the robeast every time it fired at Lance was damn near deafening. The yellow stream of condensed energy grazed his ship just barely every single time. If things kept up like this, he was done for. The shots were getting to close for comfort and by the rate they're going, one of them is eventually going to hit. Lance was a good pilot, sure, maybe even a great pilot, but one of the most skilled? As much as he wanted to boost his ego, he knew that was a dead no.

If Lance was the best pilot he would be able to get out of this situation. It was nothing but bob and weave. Of course, he was also terrified out of his mind, but this was still just simple watch your ass and dodge. And yet, he was having a far more than difficult time doing that.

He had a robeast on his tail and Lotor to his right. Lotor, who they haven't seen in months. Lotor, who had disappeared without a word. Lotor, the Galran prince, son of Zarkon.

Lance was so utterly fucked.

With no Blue, and his messages not getting through to any of the team, Lance was definitely fucked.

He had been piloting a small cargo pod from a planet they were stationed on to a nearby one when Lotor appeared. He was simply transferring resources. Of course, this could have been avoided easily.

Why hadn't he brought his lion instead? Why did he volunteer to transfer anything anyway? Why hadn't he just stayed back with his team at the castle. Because, sure there was anything else he could've done than this. And yeah, he was helping the coalition, but he's a paladin of Voltron. He's helping them by being a paladin.

But there was nothing to do on the planet! He was bored out of his mind, and confused about their whole ordeal in general. So, he wanted a chance to clear his mind. He wanted a chance for it to just be him. Lance Mcclain, piloting a ship in space, no disruptions.

Said ship rumbled and whined as another beam shot past him.

"Oh man, oh man, oh man. This is bad." He muttered to himself. Lance was a little ways more than halfway to his destination when heard that something had popped up on the planet unexpectedly. Nothing bad, just an event. The moment Lance leaves, the civilians decide to host something. Something Lance could have been at right this second if he had just sat still and waited patiently instead of bolting upright at the first chance he got of getting away for while.  
Right now? The only thing he wanted to get away from was Lotor and this robeast.

They had both came out of nowhere. Lance was following the GPS like track thing of the ship to the planet's coordinates, actually thinking about the things he wanted to have some time to think about, when a ship suddenly popped up on his radar.

Lance nearly shit his pants when he saw it. Lotor's ship was impossible to forget, easy to identify, and horrifying to recognize. It probably wouldn't have been so bad if Lance wasn't completely alone. But, he was. So, it was bad.

That's when the fucking robeast appeared as well, trailing behind Lotor's ship. He hadn't even known how they found him. How in the world--no, how in the universe did Lotor know where he was going to be? Lance didn't even know he was going to be there until a few hours beforehand. So how Lotor got to him exactly, especially with the fact in mind that the only familiar thing he had was his paladin armor, was a full blown mystery.

The first shot that had been fired at the ship was the one that put everything into whack. It was from Lotor's ship, and it knocked all of his things out instead of his ability to fly. Communication was garbled, navigation shut down entirely, and his oxygen levels were lowering rapidly. Luckily, his own paladin armor provided air for him, so the last bit was nothing to worry about.

After that, it was like Lotor was just toying with him. Lance had no idea what direction to head in, and his connection had been fucked over through and through. He was no longer getting in reports.

The funny thing is, even with his paladin armor and the ability to connect to his team with the helmet, the signal had been flat out blasted. His cries for help weren't going through. Lance was starting to think that he should've been dead a while ago. he didn't find it possible for robeast to be firing so much and missing by mere inches every single time. And Lotor wasn't firing at all. He was just watching the entire thing go down from the sidelines, like the bastard he was.

Another shot fired, and Lance felt a small shock wave of electricity run through him. It seized up his muscles and stalled his movements, causing him to groan in panic. He was quick to regain control of his arms, thrusting the handles as far as they could go. It would've been great if it had some sort of turbo boost like Pidge had added to the other Altean pods. However, this one wasn't even their's, so no hope there.

That was another reason Lance was confused as to why he wasn't dead yet. This small craft could only go so fast, and he was sure the robeast and Lotor could go three times the speed. Them keeping the same amount of distance away from him was more than a little nerve wracking.

"What the hell does he want?"

He didn't want to imagine what would happen once Lotor got a hold of him. Just then, a voice came through the communicators on his dash. It wasn't Shiro, or Allura. It wasn't anyone he hoped it would be.

"I must say, it's quite amusing to watch you scurry away like a prey would from predator." Lotor spoke. Lance's blood ran cold. "Especially when you have absolutely nowhere to go."

There was a sheet of static over his condescending tone, but Lance still heard it loud and clear.

"I take it you have a thousand questions right now," Lotor started. "How I found you, what I'm planning to do, if you'll make it out alive. Well, I can tell you right now that you'll never see the rest of the paladins again."

Lance felt his eyes prick with tears at Lotor's words. He blinked them away, again, barely missing a shot. This couldn't be happening. Not to him. Somehow, they would know that he's in trouble. Somehow they would come to get him. They were probably behind him at this exact moment. They had to be. Lotor came through the comms again.

"As fun as it's been playing with you, Paladin of Blue, it has to end here."

His grip nearly went slack with fear when Lotor laughed. He closed his eyes as he large vibration went through his ship again. This time, he could feel it in his bones. Lance found himself muttering to try and keep calm. How was he going to get out of this?

He tried to contact the team again, expecting no response.

"Allura?" Lance called out weakly. If anyone could hear him, it would be Allura. Unlike the others, she didn't need a helmet. "Allura? Is anyone there? Please," He cried desperately. "Please, if you can hear me-"

"---nce?" Broken but there, her voice reached his ears. A flash of hope and relief had him nearly gasping for air. A tear ran down his cheek. "What's --ing on?" He had never been more happy to hear her.

"It's Lotor! He's after me! I think- I think I might die if you guys don't leave right now." He clenched his eyes shut, feeling light headed. "I have nowhere to go, please!"

The craft shook violently as it was hit straight on. Lance grit his teeth together in pain, black spots dotting his vision.

When Allura spoke again, Lance didn't hear a single word. But he hoped it was something along the lines of, "Don't worry, we're on our way. You're going to make it. It's going to be okay."

Then, he wasn't going anywhere. He wasn't going forward. Instead, his ship was yanked back in the other direction. Lance almost fell out of his seat, lurching forward once he crashed into something.

Lance looked around. There were purple streams of light, similar to ropes, grappled into the sides of his ship. Lotor appeared in front of him.

"You poor thing," Lotor said, voice full of malice. "Tell me, how does it feel knowing that they wont get here in time?"

Lance did his best to ignore the obvious threat. He took hold of the gear once again and thrust forward with everything he had. It was no use. He didn't move an inch. The material of his craft wailed under the pressure of the ropes. Everything seemed to be caving in.  
It felt as though his lungs were doing the same.

Lance let go of the controls, removing the straps that ran across his chest and scrambling to the back of the ship. His legs were like liquid beneath him, trembling so bad that he fell against the doors. He pushed his fingers into the slot, trying to manually pry them open. He had no idea what it would mean if he were able to get to the other side. He just needed to get away. Get away from him.

He whirled around when the interior suddenly brightened noticeably. Now, behind Lotor's ship, was a large menacing circle of nothing but light. It reminded him of Allura's wormholes, but it had no signature, and struck fear into him just by the look of it.

Lance leaned back against the doors. He looked helplessly upon the sight of his death while Lotor proceeded to give a speech Lance couldn't even focus on.

Too many things were running through his mind. He could see them. The flashes of his family's faces. Places he'd been. People he'd met. The paladins.

Voltron.

Voltron.

At least they would be okay without him. Voltron would still be able to be formed. The universe would still have hope in being saved. Everyone else would still be safe.

Suddenly, the ropes disappeared from his line of sight. The ship started slowly floating forward in dead weight. Lotor's ship veered off to the left.

Lance let out a shaky breath.

The light emitting from the large hole did nothing but get brighter the closer he got. His arms came up in front of him to shield him from it, already knowing that it would do nothing. His body began to feel weird and weaker than ever. He dropped to the floor, facing away from the light.

And he cried out to nothing as everything went black.

  
\-----------------  
PRESENT DAY

"So, what do we have?" Lance asked, leaning against the display table. Plex and Blivar were the only ones in the room. It was well past everyone's usual sleeping time, but the two of them were still running tests over the information like Lance had ordered. Plex didn't exactly need sleep, but she revealed early on that going into rest mode did give her time to recharge. Blivar was another story. Like any organism, he has to, but he's not the type to rest until the task at hand is done. Besides, this was very important.

There were times in the past were they had forgotten to run checks on certain things, which resulted in total disaster. Which was just more false information that led them to dead ends. Hopefully though, this was a different story.

Plex turned toward him, her three lenses circling around each other while she beeped thoughtfully. "You should be asleep, Sir."

Lance shrugged, rolling his shoulders. He was tired, but he just couldn't.

The talk he had with Pyra had sent his thoughts scrambling all over the place. As much as he didn't like it, it kept him awake.

"Don't worry about me," He sighed. "Couple hours of lost sleep wont hold me back." Although Plex was incapable of expression, she looked at him worriedly over the table.

"Answering your earlier question," Blivar began, not looking up from the pad in his hand. It had a chord running from it into an outlet sort of thing in Plex's head.

"We've run into a minor inconvenience." Plex finished. Blivar gave her a look which she payed no attention to.

"If by minor you mean major, then yes." He says.

Lance moves to stand next to Blivar, looking down at the tablet screen. There was a large red box that said something in a language he couldn't understand.

"What's the problem?"

"We're not even sure yet. This obstacle is what we've been working on for minals. It's just a block we can't get past." Blivar tells him. To demonstrate, he pressed some buttons on the screen. A green loading bar appeared, nearly filling up to the far end until-

The red box popped again.

"Well shit," Lance groaned. He looked over to Plex who was extracting things with her own chord. "And you haven't come up with anything yet?"

"Unfortunately, no, Sir. Everything I try backfires on me. The information just stops at a certain point. My system doesn't seem strong enough to break through the barrier. Sorry, Sir."

"This isn't your fault." He told her. "Looks like the trade we made was booked on both parts." Lance paused, placing a hand on his hip and rubbing at his chin thoughtfully. This usually wasn't anything new, but with additional fact that even Plex couldn't solve the issue, something was off the charts. "What do you think it could be hiding?" He asks.

The tablet is placed on the table quite angrily by Blivar, and he goes to sit in his assigned seat, right behind Pyra's. He rotates it to face them.

"Obviously something they don't want us to see."

"Then again, it could just be false information." He really didn't want it to be. If Pyra was right then they would have to start all over again.

"Unlikely. If it was fake there would be no need to hide something." Blivar countered.

"Right, so it's just the rest. It's gotta be." Lance picked up the tablet, despite him not being able to read any of it, the sequence that Blivar pressed, and the same thing happened. This would prolong everything. "How long do you estimate it'll take us to get past this?"

"One second, Sir." A couple whirs and click, and then a low resounding buzz. She went quiet.

"Plex?"

"I don't think you want to hear the exact time, Sir."

Fantastic. Amazing. Awesome. Lance tapped at the back of the pad in no sort of rhythm. He had to be optimistic about this.

"We'll have to work with what we have."

Blivar chuckled.

"And what exactly are you laughing at?"

"You always look on the bright side of things." He says.

"Somebody has to."

"I get that, but you also have to think, yeah? If we're just gonna leave this thing here, what are we gonna do to find the rest of the information? This took a long time to get. It's going to be more than difficult to come across it again." Blivar explains, leaning forward and propping his elbow onto his knees, his hands coming together.

And of course Blivar would come along to make things more difficult. Bad thing is, he was right. Lance hated that everyone was right about this. He just wishes for once, things would go his way. The right way.

Lance exited the room soon after. He wanted to talk to someone to get his mind off Pyra, but instead, everything just formed a big ugly circle.

He went to the kitchen.

Maybe some food would help. In a way, food always fixed everything.

So, Lance opened the deep fridge and pulled out a cold container of goo. It was all they really had, which he has gotten used to at this point. Again, he could always go for something better. But this was his life. Living here on this ship with a band of space pirates, making a living off stealing and selling whatever they could. Lance didn't hate it, but he knew it didn't always have to be like this.

There was a loud crash by the time Lance was halfway through his food.

He dropped his bowl onto the top of the fridge and rushed into the room. It had came from where Blivar and Plex were working.

"What happened?"

Blivar stood behind Plex, his large hand coming up before landing on Plex's head, creating the exact same sound Lance had heard earlier.

"What the hell are you doing?" Lance asked. Blivar looked in his direction like nothing was out of the ordinary. Below him, Plex was beeping and whirring and clicking like crazy. "Are you trying to break her?"

Blivar smirked at Lance's panicked tone.

"No. Don't be stupid. We got to some talking. We came to a conclusion, a last resort of sorts, that maybe if I hit her, there's a small chance, that it might, just maybe, trigger something in her power system."

So that was a thing, apparently. And if you ask Lance, it made absolutely no sense, but Plex was the robot. If they both came to this conclusion, they could very well be right about it.

Although, it still mad Lance wince when Blivar struck her again. This time she let out a high pitched whine, one that kind of reminded him of a flatline.

Before he could question their tactics again, Plex lit up. Quite literally.

The small lines of light on her body began to glow, and again, Plex might've had basically no face, but Lance could swear she was smiling.

"It worked!"

"It worked?" Lance questioned as Blivar snatched up the tablet. He did the thing he did earlier, pressing buttons in the same sequence as before. This time though, there was no red block that appeared on the screen.

"Alright!" Lance clapped Blivar on the shoulder. "Great work, guys! I knew you could do it." He felt so much tension in him float away, replaced by the feeling of him walking on clouds. Because this meant things would work out! This meant their chances at succeeding were higher than ever.

"Captain..." Blivar whispered, staring at the screen. It surprised Lance, because Blivar rarely whispered or called him captain. His next words nearly made Lance's heart stop. He could feel himself falling through the clouds and plummeting to his death. A familiar sense of dread overcame him. "We're being tracked."

They shared a look.

A knowing look.

Years ago an incident happened that resulted in them building a system that constantly ran a check up on the ship. The normal protocol for tracking was physical. It was either cloaked or too tiny for anyone to see. In all their time together, a tracking unit embedded within the data they collected was unheard of.

This was different. This was bad.

Too many things were at risk when it came to someone tracking them. When their location was out in the open.

"Initiate cloaking." Lance ordered. He wasn't sure if them not being able to be seen would make a difference, but they couldn't sit and do nothing. They couldn't sit and wait for the tracker to reach them. "Plex? Is there any way you can destroy that thing?" He asks as Blivar follows his orders.

Plex was quick to reply.

"I am unable to interact directly with the information. The tracker is embedded in a fashion where I cannot reach it. We can attempt extracting the data from our table and disposing of it. However, disposing of the data means we have no lead whatsoever in achieving the Xulite crystal. Do you want to proceed, Sir?"

Lance grit his teeth. Just like that, they were at the bottom again. They were at square one. He couldn't let this happen. He wouldn't be able to live with himself if he'd done this to his team. If he had taken them this far only to drop a bomb like this once they hit the last peak.

He slammed his fist down on the table, right beside where Blivar had tossed the tablet. "There has to be another way."

"Cloaking initiated," Blivar said in the background.

"Scanning the chances of a positive possible outcome," Plex hummed, and Lance grabbed the tablet, staring angrily at the symbols and numbers. He waited in anticipation as she beeped. "The possible outcomes are beyond our reach, Sir."

"So you're telling me, there's no way we can separate them? At all?" Lance asks her. "Plex, there's gotta be something. Anything that means we don't have to throw everything away?"

"Like a virus, the tracker itself is now a part of information, and currently speaking, our system itself. To get rid of it, we would need to upgrade my system. The upgrade is across the galaxy, as well as heavily guarded. It would take us off course by a long shot. I would also like to add that by then, the possibility of them finding us before we reach the upgrade is ninety-two percent."

It was situations such as this where Plex's robotic voice would irk his nerves. He had to choose between losing the information, or possibly losing one of their lives.

It should've been obvious what the right answer was, but it wasn't, not in Lance's eyes. To him, this was their potential futures. It was deciding between the hard way, and the hard way. There was no easy way out to this. Lance thought, and he thought long and hard. So hard, he could basically feel the bags under his eyes grow as his headache got stronger. It took an hour of pacing the room and muttering to himself before he settled down in his respective seat.

"Can you tell us where the crystal is located?"

"Loacted in the fourth quarter of planet Krato."

"How far is that?" Lance asks.

"Thirteen bivatralls away."

"And the upgrade?"

"Fifty three bivatralls."

Lance sighs.

"What's the chance of them finding us before we reach Krato?"

"Forty-eight point seven percent."

"We're going to have to take that chance." Lance said, his hand on his chin. "If we're going to get that crystal, we're gonna have to kick everything into hyper-drive. I'm talking constructing the plan for this crystal every single moment our eyes are open. We don't have room for slip-ups at this point. It's going to be a close call, and rushed, but under the right circumstances.

"We're a team, and we can do anything we put our minds to. We have the right set of skills, and we know how to use them pretty damn well. This won't be a smooth ride, like, at all, but it's the only ride we got. We're not missing it."

Blivar nodded, Plex rolls in front of the space in front of him. There time to actually say anything was short. Lance had to bring it up, and he had to do it now.

"We can't tell Pyra."

"What?" Blivar snapped, eyes wide and confused. Lance stood up to stand in front of them, placing his hands on his hips.

"We can't tell her, period. She's way unstable, and worried. If we drop this on her, she won't stand for any of it. Absolutely none. We can't go through with it if she doesn't agree."

Plex bleeped in concern and turned towards Bilvar, whose brows were shadowed over his eyes in blatant understanding, to which Lance was thankful for. If anyone would stand beside him with this decision, it'd be him. Soon enough, Plex turned to face Lance again, a fierce glint in all three of her lens.

"Yes, Sir."

With a sigh, he looked back at the table, that now set a restless feeling in the pit of his stomach just from seeing it. It didn't feel right, not at all, but Lance knew it was the best option they had.

**Author's Note:**

> Skshskssksks so that's the first chapter,, hope it floated your boat
> 
> Feedback is HIGHLY appreciated! Kudos! Comments! Anything to let me know to continue with this!
> 
> Sadly i have no idea how frequently i can update chapters, or if they'll be shorter or longer in the future :/  
> I'm tryin tho
> 
> A million thanks~


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